Paropsis albae

This tiny beetle is a dark species similar to ornata. It is known from Papua New Guinea and is not recorded from Australia.

comments (2)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

So would that mean this is the first recorded spotting from Australia? Posted 9 years ago

Martin Lagerwey

Lion

Yes, that is correct. Many people visit Darwin or Far North Queensland including Horn Island for holidays or retirement. They hope to find unusual species drifting down from New Guinea. This includes birders and lepidopterists. Indeed it was a butterfly collector who sent this random beetle to me. The genus Paropsis is reviewed by Gunter Maywald and he has seen P. albae from Port Moresby but not in any Australian pinned collection. This discovery has missed publication so your question depends on what 'recorded' means. I record data onto Bowerbird.org.au because it gets loaded onto the Atlas of Living Australia database. I'm here to share records. We now have 73 species in Australia and not 72. Posted 9 years ago